Bar scene epilogue
Autobot City - Repair Bay This is the main repair bay for the Autobots. Several operating tables lie in a row here, and a long bench lines one wall. On the bench are assorted tools used in repairing damaged Transformers. Scattered throughout the room are various repair bots, awaiting the arrival of more wounded to repair. The room gives you the perception of being immaculately clean, not a tool out of place. On the left side of the operating arena are wide sliding doors that open into the recovery ward. Less frantic than the busy repair bay, it consists of two rows of immaculate beds on opposite walls for those needing peace and quiet to rest and recover from their repairs. The sounds of quiet conversations between medic and patient, or between visitor and patient, are about all that disturb the quiet. Blurr makes his way into the repair bay to check on Torque and make sure she's okay. Yes, even though he's sobered up a bit, he is still convinced that she had been attacked by Buzzkill at the bar. If he remembers anything, he at least remembers /that/ part. And the dancing. Slag, she had some moves. Where did a medic learn to dance like that anyway? He had every intention of asking her that, if she's sobered up enough, that is. Once inside, the speedster looks for the medic. "Torque?" Torque is pretty much the embodiment of shit right now, both looking it and feeling it as she sits up in a medical bed, leaning forward and just holding her head in her hands to try and cover her optics from any light. Despite there not being any instant cures for hangovers, a steady IV drip of an energon/oil mixture slowly gets the job done. "Mmf.. not so loud.." The femme groans, squinting as she looks up to spot the slightly hazy form of Blurr. So a blurr of Blurr. "Oh.. Hey Blurr, c'mon in." Torque manages a light smile, tiredly motioning him over to the seat near the bed. "Sorry about earlier.. I didn't know thigs would get so crazy so fast. But.. that's what I get for handing out free drinks, I guess." She chuckles softly, though winces afterwards. In a flash, Blurr has set himself down on the seat she had just motioned to. "You okay? Looks like that Insecticon did a number on you. Best be more careful, next time." he smirks. "But...don't apologize to me. I'm not the one who got beat up and stasis locked." Torque blinks in surprise at the speed he moves to the chair, one moment at the door and the next beside her. Damn, he really is fast. She opens her mouth to speak, but he mentions getting beat up and she has to pause, giving him an odd look. "Beat up? ..Blurr, she kissed me and I fell off the counter. ...Not the best way to end a kiss, in my opinion, bad or not." The medic snorts at this, rubbing the back of her head where it hit the floor. "I'd ask for a strong drink after something like that, but I think I'm done for the day." She sighs softly, a few moments of silence passing before she finally looks back to Blurr, smile still hanging, "..But I did hear you clocked her good after. ..Thanks." "I did yeah..." Blurr chuckles. Yeah, that part was fun. But then Torque apparently interpreted the Decepticon's actions differently. "Wait, she /what/? Isn't that some kind of thing that humans do to show special affection for each other? Hah." he shakes his head. "I'm pretty sure she was trying to start a fight or something. Typical Decepticon." "Well.. yes, and I admit, it's nice, but not from her." Torque nearly turns green at the memory, just making a face of displeasure. "Maybe. Didn't turn out so well from what I hear." She eventually eases in a smirk, sitting back on the raised bed and folding hands in her lap. "Also heard you dragged me outta there. You're really on a 'white knight' kick tonight, huh?" She laughs softly, but it's a happy one, just glad to be back at base and resting easy. "Again.. thank you." Blurr shrugs. "Eh, I always did that for the femmes back on Cybertron. You know, when I used to be a racer. It's a habit of mine, I guess. Oh--" he smiles playfully now, leaning closer to the berth. "You never did answer my question about those moves. Where the slag did a medic like you learn to dance like /that/? Used to party a lot before war, eh?" Torque's optics brighten and widen a hair when Blurr leans in, blinking a few times as silicon cheeks flush a soft hue of violet from rising energon at his question. "Eh? My.. my moves?" She wasn't expecting him to ask that, actually making her look away while rubbing the back of her neck and softly biting lower lip. "It's.. It's kind of a long story. But.. I guess you could say I did, in a sense.." It takes her a few long moments, but she finally, albeit hesitantly, looks back with a slight frown curling her lips. "At the start of the war I was built on an off-planet training facility, specifically to be a medic. I didn't really wanna be in the war though, so I... just ran. Somehow ended up on Monacus, but couldn't make my way off for vorns. ...Did a lot of things there before I made it off and rejoined the Bots." Blurr listens intently as Torque tells her story, nodding. "So, Monacus? That's where the parties went down, huh? What made you decide to come back to the Autobots?" he asks, curious. Torque gives him a mild tilt of her head. Hm, she'll have to clarify. "I decided to come back 'cause my life was.. pretty much hell there. Didn't wanna go to those parties, but I had to. Had to do /anything/ I could to scrape up cash to get a transport out.. Hell, I even opened some crappy little repair shop.. Kinda makes me miss it." She looks a little lost in her thoughts as she speaks. "Monacus was.. /is/ seedy when you get down to where the crimelords sit and bleed the Empties dry. That's where I was stuck. But I made a friend there, who was stuck too, and he helped me pay my way out. ...Never heard from him since." Finally she breaks from her story, optics glancing sidelong at Blurr while a tired smile shows. "Not exactly the high-class life, like yours." Ah, so /that's/ why she'd learned to dance like that. For the money. "So...you hated it there, but if that's the case why'd you go there in the first place?" Blurr prods, but then pauses before continuing on. "Well, I guess what I'm really asking is why you changed your mind. You said you didn't want a part in the war when you were first trained. When you finally bought your way off of Monacus, what made you want to come back to us instead of running off some place where the war would never touch you?" Torque draws her legs up now to cross as Blurr continues to dig, though she doesn't appear to mind it too much now. "I was still kinda fresh, so I didn't know too much about Monacus. Only went off rumors from some others. Figured I'd make a great living there instead of getting dumped in the slums. And well..." She looks down to the hands in her lap, thumbs twiddling idly. "I think what made me join the Bots finally is because of what I saw back on Monacus. The corruption, the suffering.. I wanted to help stop it after experiencing it firsthand. I guess it helped there was plenty of Con influence there to sway my decision to the Bots." Her smile brightens now, turns more genuine. "But you know, there's a part of me that's glad for getting stuck there. I learned to hone my skills, fixing those Empties, and I learned to fight, to stay alive. Gave me an appreciation for things I should've done, like not leave in the first place." She rolls her shoulders in a light shrug, starting to feel a little better now that she's talking. "And what about you? I only knew about you being a racer before the war. How'd you join?" Antennas twitch on a slightly tilted head at him, looking quite curious as she turns to face him fully and lean forward in her lap. "Heh. Yeah that makes sense." Blurr responds. "I guess the idea of going off into the war wouldn't sound very promising to a new 'Bot." he comments once she's finished her story. "I'm glad you're better for it, though. "Me? Heh." he leans back in his seat. "Yeah, you had /better/ know about that." he teases. "In fact, not only was I a racer...I was the best of the best. I don't know if the facility where I was forged intended it that way or if it was just pure luck that the way I was built let me beat every record in the archives in the span of just a few meta-cycles. The astrosecond I hit the raceway even for the first time, I was completely at home, as if I'd been doing it for vorns. I was an instant sports /legend/. And then the attacks started." He shook his head. "It all fell apart so fast even I had trouble coming to terms with it. After the stadium in Iacon was destroyed, security services decided that having so many civilians packed into an arena like that was too dangerous and the races were shut down. Completely. Everything disappeared. The parties, the shanix...all my friends went their separate ways. The 'Bots came to me needing something done that only I could do. I guess the fact that they recognized that helped plenty." he chuckles at this. "I needed a new purpose, and they gave me one. Plus--I was pretty convinced the Decepticons were responsible for ruining my career..." Torque remains silent all the while as he speaks, her attention all his. "I wish I could've seen you race.. It must've been amazing." She smiles at the thought, imagining it to be a lot better than the stadium shows she sometimes managed to watch. The gladitorial games. Not pretty. But when he finishes, all she can do is silently lean out from the bed, catching the blue mech up in a tight hug. "I'm sorry about the track being shut down.. and losing everything to be thrust into this. But.. glad we have you." She pulls back a little bit, enough to look him in the face and smile warmly. "Besides, if the fastest mech joined the Cons? I think we'd be pretty screwed." She laughs softly at this, pulling away to settle back on her medical bed. Blurr puts a hand on her back as she hugs him, nodding. "Heh, it was amazing. If you saw me back then, you probably would've thought I was a spoiled piston rod. Which, now that I think back on it, I pretty much was. I had /everything/ at my fingertips and I had no idea what any other sort of life was like. Another reason why I joined the Autobots...I didn't really know of anything else I could do other than join up with the 'Cons. Which of course I wasn't an option for me, since they blew up the stadium. They gave me something to do that required speed, and I did it. But I'm glad I did. Heh. I don't even want to think about the kind of mech I would have turned into had I joined the Decepticons." he shakes his head at the thought. "But...anyway it's not too late for you to see me race. I still /can/. Just because it was no longer my top priority any more didn't change the fact that I'm the best. No one ever beat me on the racetrack before the races ended, and that hasn't changed one bit." he laughs. "So, you're right about that--the Autobots would be pretty slagged. Just like the Decepticons are right now." Torque's antennas give a soft few twitches at his mention of his attitude back then, "Well, I imagine anyone with a life like that would act that way. I hear fame kinda goes to your head sometimes. You're not all that bad now though." Her expression lights up quite a bit when Blurr speaks of still racing however, hands gripping her legs as she leans in with an enthusiastic grin on her face. "Maybe sometime I get over this hangover.. Maybe you could show me how fast you can go? How fast you were on the track? But I mean.. you wouldn't really have anyone to compete against since I'm way too slow anyway." She rubs the back of her neck again, gaze turning a bit sidelong in mild embarrassment. She's a truck, she's not supposed to go fast. "Any time." Blurr grins. A chance to show off to the ladies? He's game. "Tch...yeah. The 'Bots taught me to respect the chain of command. It was a hard lesson at first, but it was good for me." A few others would probably say he was still in the /process/ of learning that lesson. They might be right. But maybe that's because they never knew him /before/ and therefore hadn't seen how far he had come. "I was so used to having everyone fawn over me and cater to my every whim. Having superior officers changed that real quick." Torque can't help wriggling a little in her spot when he accepts to show off some of his speed, Torque grinning bright. "Great! Maybe I could set up a temporary course for you to show off your skills." She /is/ an engineer afterall. "Well.. I hope you don't mind another personing fawning over you. If only a /little/." She parts her thumb and index a little to indicate, clearly playing with him. Blurr laughs. "I'll take all the fawning I can get from a fembot like /you/." he moves a little closer to the berth again. "Can't wait to see what you'll have in store for me, Torque. But most of all, I hope you enjoy yourself." Torque laughs softly along with him. "Hm.. You're sweet for a guy who was apparently stuck up." She teases Blurr a bit, nudging him playfully at the shoulder with her knuckles in a light bump. "Already got some ideas in mind for the track. Trust me, you'll think you were back in the races once I'm done! Though admittedly.. I have to actually know what those tracks looked like, hmm." Looks like she'll be doing research. She looks about to speak again when Blurr begins to move in again, but her words fall silent at a sudden clearing of vocals at the curtain seperating her bed from the others. A gumby medic stands in the doorway, a standard blue with accents of offwhite on his average frame. Looks like he turns into an ambulance too. "Ah, Torque. We know it's just a hangover, but we still have to check your vitals." At this the femme puffs softly, rolling her optics. "Alright, alright." She's such a bad patient. Turning back to Blurr, Torque looks rather apologetic despite the light smile. "Sorry.. standard procedure and all that. You think we could catch up later when I'm not confined to medbay?" "Tell you what, I'll send you some old schematics. I used to keep them all in my personal datafiles. After all, knowing the track is half of winning, you know. It's not /all/ speed, contrary to what you might think I'd say." Blurr grins. But then some gumby medic shows up to disrupt their 'tender' moment, sadly enough. He stands, nodding, though not before lightly brushing a hand against the back of hers. "Do whatever you need to do." And then he's gone, turning his head sideways momentarily to look back at her and give her a flirty half-smile. "See you around, Torque."